MLSE announced Wednesday it has an agreement to buy the Grey Cup champions.

There was already some cross-ownership. The Argos are currently owned by two-thirds of the MLSE triumvirate — chairman Larry Tanenbaum’s holding company, the Kilmer Group, and Bell Canada.

In bringing the Argos fully into the MLSE fold, Rogers Communications will officially join its two MLSE partners as part of the CFL team’s ownership.

“Under its current ownership, a transformed Argonauts football club enhanced its presence and fan base in Canada’s largest sports market and ultimately marched to the CFL championship,” MLSE president and CEO Michael Friisdahl said in a statement. “We look forward to building on the Argos’ strong momentum as we welcome the team to the leading provider of sports and entertainment experiences in Canada.”

The sale is expected to close in January, according to MLSE.

Approval from the CFL board of governors would not seem to be a problem.

“On the heels of a stunning Grey Cup showdown with the Calgary Stampeders that highlighted the sheer excitement of Canadian football, we’re thrilled that the Argonauts will be joining the MLSE roster,” CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie, said in a statement. “We welcome MLSE to the CFL and look forward to working with them to further enhance the experience for Canadian football fans.”

The Argos play at MLSE-operated BMO Field, home to the newly crowned MLS champion Toronto FC. While the lakefront stadium has more character than the domed Rogers Centre, fans have taken a while to warm up to it.

The Argos drew just 11,219 spectators to a June 30 home loss to the B.C. Lions. But attendance grew as Toronto mounted its playoff push with the Eastern final against Saskatchewan drawing 24,929.

Bell and Tanenbaum bought the Argos from David Braley in May 2015 after nearly a year of talks. Braley, who also owns the B.C. Lions, took control of the Argos in February 2010 from Toronto businessmen David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski.

Rogers did not get involved at the time of the 2015 sale, with speculation that it was not interested in the franchise because the CFL was tied to Bell, through its broadcast affiliate TSN.

Rogers owns the Blue Jays, the city’s other major sports franchise, although there have been reports recently that the team may be available for the right price.

Founded in 1873, the Toronto Argonauts are North America’s oldest continuously operated professional football club.

The club has had its ups and downs both on and off the field.

Cynamon and Sokolowski bought the team after the CFL took over the franchise in 2003 from New York businessman Sherwood Schwarz, who had become the franchise’s ninth owner in 2000.

The team has had some star power in the front office.

In 1991, Harry Ornest sold the Argonauts to a group spearheaded by L.A. Kings owner Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky and comedian/actor John Candy.

]]>http://nationalpost.com/sports/football/cfl/grey-cup-champion-toronto-argonauts-to-join-mlse-stable-of-sports-franchises/feed0121317-FBO_CFL_Grey_Cup_Argos_Rally_20171128canadianpressnpInjured Canadian skier Marie-Michele Gagnon focuses on next Olympicshttp://nationalpost.com/sports/olympics/injured-canadian-skier-marie-michele-gagnon-focuses-on-next-olympics
http://nationalpost.com/sports/olympics/injured-canadian-skier-marie-michele-gagnon-focuses-on-next-olympics#respondWed, 13 Dec 2017 20:57:50 +0000http://nationalpost.com/?p=77025186]]>Marie-Michele Gagnon has already wrapped her head around the fact she will miss the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

In fact, though she is just getting into rehab from knee and shoulder surgery, the Canadian alpine skier sounds upbeat and looking ahead at her long-term future rather than dwelling on the current setback.

The 28-year-old from Lac Etchemin, Que. tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee and dislocated her left shoulder in a Nov. 30 crash during training for the women’s World Cup downhill in Lake Louise.

“I’ve definitely had some time to ponder it,” she said during a conference call on Wednesday. “For sure it’s disappointing to be hurt at any time, for sure in an Olympic year even more disappointing.

“I would say we are lucky that our sport, alpine skiing, it’s not just about the Olympics. It’s a sport that has been ingrained in the culture in Europe for many, many years. I would say all the World Cups are very, very important and overall World Cup titles and everything, those are still dreams I have.

“For this time, I have to give up my Olympic dream for this cycle but I have four more years after that and I want to make it to the next Olympics, so it’s not over as far as the Olympics goes for me.”

Her season is done, however, and it held some real promise. She finished 10th in a slalom in Levi, Finland and 24th in a giant slalom in Killington, Vermont. And she was putting down a top-five training run when she caught an edge and wound up in the safety net.

She popped her own shoulder back into place following the crash — she has injured it several times — and following an initial exam by doctors, she didn’t think the knee injury was too severe. A subsequent MRI in Calgary revealed the complete tear. Because she would need surgery to repair the knee, she also decided to have surgery on the shoulder at the same time rather than wait until the spring.

]]>http://nationalpost.com/sports/olympics/injured-canadian-skier-marie-michele-gagnon-focuses-on-next-olympics/feed0121317-SKI_World_Cup_Lake_Louise_20171128npdbarnesHot Buttered Post: An ode to DeMar DeRozan, paragon of work ethic who now knows how to passhttp://nationalpost.com/sports/hot-buttered-post-an-ode-to-demar-derozan
http://nationalpost.com/sports/hot-buttered-post-an-ode-to-demar-derozan#respondWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:02:22 +0000http://nationalpost.com/?p=77019652]]>

Your midday sports snack.

Toast points

• Team Canada continued its tentative push toward the men’s Olympic hockey tournament with a 4-2 win over South Korea in the opening game at the Channel One Cup. Canada sent a 25-player roster to the international tuneup event in Moscow, 19 of whom play in the KHL. It isn’t certain if those 19 will actually be available to play in Pyeongchang; KHL president Dmitry Chernyshenko said today that he’s waiting to see how many Russian athletes the IOC bans from the games before deciding on his league’s participation.

• Longtime NHL defenceman Zarley Zalapski has died at age 49 due to complications from a viral infection, his family said in a statement yesterday. Zalapski scored 384 points in 637 career NHL games with five teams, including the Flames and Canadiens, and played for Canada as a 19-year-old at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.

• One of the stranger trends of the NHL season persisted last night in Buffalo’s 3-2 win over Ottawa. Benoit Pouliot’s goal at 4:13 of the second period lifted the Sabres to 6-0-1 in games in which he scores — compared to their 2-17-5 mark when he doesn’t, per the Elias Sports Bureau. Buffalo’s 22 points are the second-fewest in the league, while the Senators are stuck at 25 now that they’ve lost 12 of their last 13 games.

• Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is proving that general manager Steve Yzerman was smart to trade Ben Bishop in the off-season. Vasilevskiy earned his 20th win of the season last night with a 3-0 shutout of St. Louis, a battle of the top two teams in the NHL. The league reports that Vasilevskiy is the sixth goalie in history to earn 20 wins in his first 25 appearances of a season. His 2.15 goals against average and .933 save percentage are tops in the league among No. 1 goalies.

• “Jose Bautista’s agent Jay Alou has been trying to spark some interest in his client, feeling the slugger has found the issue with his swing last season.” — Nick Cafardo, the Boston Globe’s national baseball writer, on Twitter. Bautista is a free agent looking for work after the worst season of his career, in which he hit .203 with a dismal .308 on-base percentage.

Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista salutes the crowd as he leaves the field in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees on Sept. 24.

• Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman was named the winner of USA Baseball’s International Performance of the Year for his effort in the final of the World Baseball Classic in March. Stroman held Puerto Rico to one hit and one walk over six innings in the 8-0 victory.

• Aaron Rodgers said on Instagram last night that he’s been “medically cleared to return” from the broken collarbone that kept him out of Green Bay’s last seven games. The Packers (7-6) lost four of Brett Hundley’s first five games as the starting quarterback, but have since won two straight to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. It isn’t yet clear if Rodgers will reclaim the starting job in time for Sunday’s game at Carolina.

• Babe Ruth imitator Shohei Ohtani has a sprained ligament in his pitching elbow that, if damaged further, could require Tommy John surgery to fix, Yahoo Sports reported last night. For now, the first-degree sprain of Ohtani’s right ulnar collateral ligament is considered mild. The Angels were aware of the ailment when they gave the Japanese hitting and pitching star a $2.3-million signing bonus on Saturday.

• Bob Costas was named today as the winner of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award. He was the voice of baseball on NBC throughout the 1980s and 1990s and returned to the sport in 2009 calling games and hosting documentaries for the MLB Network.

Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan celebrates a late bucket against the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 9.

Nutritional analysis

The subject of sports heroes is a fraught concept we’re all more than familiar with. Athletes are human, subject to the same personal frailties that bedevil us all. But let’s take a moment to recognize what a paragon of persistence and work ethic DeMar DeRozan has been in his career.

Each off-season, fans would hear about an aspect of his game he was working on, and each fall, the season would arrive and he would be better at it. Do you remember the kid who would dribble the ball off his foot in crunch time? Last season, he reached the top five in league scoring, averaging 27.3 points per game, a true elite scorer in the NBA. And still without a three-point shot.

We heard again this off-season that DeRozan was working on his three, to evolve with the changes in the game. He’s still not taking that many threes, only 2.4 per game, and he’s not making them with any more regularity than he has in the past. But DeRozan’s game has evolved in a way that cements his status as the kind of athlete who ought to be lauded for his ability to mature and grow when it could have been easy to justify his US$27.7-million salary by playing one-on-one ball for a third of every Raptors’ possession, shooting those long two-pointers and remaining an elite scorer.

Instead, DeRozan has taken a step back in his scoring this season and taken a step forward in his passing, which is a marvel. DeRozan has averaged 2.9 assists per game in his career, but this season is averaging 5.2 per game. Restated as per-100 possessions, DeRozan is at 7.4 this season after a career mark of 4.4. Below is a chart of his league ranking in points per game and assists per game (not including his rookie season).

The one thing DeRozan has never been able to solve is his defence. His defensive rating has always been the neon sign illuminating the particular flaw in his game. Yet, the difference between his offensive rating (points scored by the team per 100 possessions while he’s on the floor) and defensive rating is at the widest margin of his career, regardless of whether you use the NBA.com calculation or the Basketball-Reference.com version.

Photo of the day

The Oilers aren’t especially close to the playoff picture in the Western Conference, but at least they’re scoring a lot of late. Seven of their players netted a goal last night in a 7-2 win over the Blue Jackets, the third time in the last five games that Edmonton has scored six goals or more.

The Oilers beat Montreal 6-2 last Saturday and Calgary 7-5 the Saturday before that, after posting 6-2, 8-2 and 6-3 wins in different games throughout November. Those outbursts have almost been enough to right their negative goal-differential mark, which is tied for second-worst in the conference at -8.

At nationalpost.com

• Don’t expect Victor Mete, Canada’s likely No. 1 defenceman at the upcoming world junior championships, to balk at the stress of the occasion. The 19-year-old already has 27 NHL games to his name — in one of the more frenzied hockey markets in the world. Skating alongside Shea Weber and seeing his Canadiens teammates answer pointed questions during an early losing streak has Mete primed to lead a deep Canadian blueline corps in Buffalo, writes Michael Traikos.

• Two months from now, the best team in MLS history will reconvene to mount a push for the one prize they didn’t win in 2017: the CONCACAF Champions League trophy. Toronto FC plans to bask in their victory over Seattle in the MLS Cup for a while, reports Kurtis Larson, but the players say the historic treble they achieved this year — Canadian, regular-season and playoff championships — hasn’t left them satisfied.

]]>http://nationalpost.com/sports/hot-buttered-post-an-ode-to-demar-derozan/feed0121317-RaptorsPacersnationalpoststaffCanadian roster left in limbo as KHL waits to decide if it will bar players from Olympicshttp://nationalpost.com/sports/olympics/khl-undecided-on-allowing-players-to-go-to-the-olympics
http://nationalpost.com/sports/olympics/khl-undecided-on-allowing-players-to-go-to-the-olympics#commentsWed, 13 Dec 2017 14:58:55 +0000https://nationalpostcom.wordpress.com?p=77024216&preview=true&preview_id=77024216]]>MOSCOW — The president of the Kontinental Hockey League said Wednesday he is waiting to find out how many Russians will be banned from the Pyeongchang Olympics before deciding if he will allow his players to compete in South Korea.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, the head of the organizing committee for the 2014 Sochi Olympics but now president of the KHL, said “we’ll understand who’s going and who’s not going and then the league will respond accordingly.”

The Moscow-based KHL, widely considered the strongest league outside the NHL, previously expressed outrage at bans for Russian athletes in other sports tainted by doping at the Sochi Olympics.

No allegations have been made of wrongdoing in Sochi by the Russian men’s hockey team.

With the NHL already out of the Pyeongchang Olympics, any KHL withdrawal would affect more than just the Russian team, whose current roster is entirely KHL-based. Teams like Canada, the United States and Finland are also counting on KHL players for Pyeongchang. Of the 25 players on Canada’s roster for the Channel One Cup, an Olympic prep tournament that begins Wednesday in Moscow, 19 are playing in the KHL.

Team Canada forward Gilbert Brule (right), a prospective Canadian Olympian who plays in the KHL, celebrates his goal against Finland at the Karjala Cup with teammate Matt Ellison on Nov. 12.

Russians in Pyeongchang must compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” under a neutral flag as IOC punishment for doping offences at the 2014 Olympics.

The KHL also published a statement on its website Wednesday supporting Russian players competing under the IOC conditions, but then removed it. The league’s media department said it was taken down because it was posted by mistake and that Chernyshenko’s comments took precedence.

Last week’s IOC ruling didn’t accuse Chernyshenko of any wrongdoing in Sochi, but did order him removed from an IOC body overseeing preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Also Wednesday, the Russian Hockey Federation — which accepts Russians competing as neutral athletes in Pyeongchang — looked set for a dispute with the IOC over uniforms.

Russians in Pyeongchang are required to compete in IOC-approved uniforms without Russian national colours or symbols. However, the RHF believes it can still use its existing Nike-manufactured jerseys, which are red with a large Russian double-headed eagle emblem across the chest.

“There’s a discussion around the uniform,” said Roman Rotenberg, the federation’s senior vice-president. “It’s been produced already and there are certain technical questions.”

Rotenberg predicted there was a “90 per cent chance” the Russian hockey team could wear the red Nike uniforms when competing in Pyeongchang.

]]>http://nationalpost.com/sports/olympics/khl-undecided-on-allowing-players-to-go-to-the-olympics/feed2HKO-Karjala-Cup-20171112.jpgassociatedpressnpFour-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome faces long suspension for failed doping testhttp://nationalpost.com/sports/froome-returns-abnormal-result-for-salbutamol-during-vuelta
http://nationalpost.com/sports/froome-returns-abnormal-result-for-salbutamol-during-vuelta#respondWed, 13 Dec 2017 07:58:10 +0000https://nationalpostcom.wordpress.com?p=77023792&preview=true&preview_id=77023792]]>PARIS — Chris Froome failed a doping test during the Spanish Vuelta in September and is facing a suspension from cycling ahead of his attempt to win a record-equaling fifth Tour de France title next year.

Froome won his fourth Tour title this year and followed it with a victory at the Vuelta. But Team Sky said Wednesday that Froome, who has not been suspended, had a concentration of asthma drug salbutamol two times higher than the World Anti-Doping Agency’s permitted levels.

“Analysis indicated the presence of salbutamol at a concentration of 2,000 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml), compared with the WADA threshold of 1,000 ng/ml,” Team Sky said.

Team Sky said it has been informed by the International Cycling Union that the urine test was taken on Sept. 7, during the three-week Spanish Vuelta.

Froome said the UCI has asked him to provide information about the failed test, which was taken after Stage 18.

Froome’s use of asthma medication has been well documented, and the Kenyan-born rider has often been spotted using inhalers in the peloton. He has repeatedly faced questions on whether he is a clean rider, especially during the Tour de France, and has always denied wrongdoing.

In this July 16, 2017 file photo, Chris Froome (centre) prepares to ride in the 15th stage of the Tour de France, which he eventually won.

Salbutamol is a drug that helps expand lung capacity and can be used as a performance-enhancing drug to increase endurance. Commonly marketed as Ventolin, salbutamol is classified as a beta-2 agonist and WADA allows it to be taken through inhalation only, in limited amounts.

Sky said Froome had to take an increased dosage of salbutamol without exceeding the permissible dose after he “experienced acute asthma symptoms” during the final week of the Vuelta.

If found guilty of doping, the 32-year-old Froome could lose his Vuelta title and be suspended for a long period. Sprinter Alessandro Petacchi was suspended for one year for testing positive for salbutamol during the 2007 Giro d’Italia.

Vuelta organizers said they are waiting for “official conclusions” from the UCI about the case.

“The position of La Vuelta’s organizer is one of extreme caution, as it hopes for this issue to be resolved as quickly as possible,” they said in a statement.

Froome was expected to attempt to join cycling greats Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain on the list of five-time Tour de France champions in July. Lance Armstrong won seven titles, but all of them were stripped because of doping.

Team Sky has been dominating the field at the Tour de France in recent years, but has been targeted by doping accusations. Britain’s anti-doping agency last month closed an investigation into the team without bringing charges. The case centred on the contents of a medical package dispatched to former Tour champion Bradley Wiggins at a key pre-Tour race in 2011.

Team Sky was established in 2009 by Dave Brailsford, the man behind Britain’s 14 medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with the target of producing the country’s first Tour champion — a feat accomplished by Wiggins in 2012. Froome, his former teammate, has taken over since as Britain’s most successful road rider.

After successfully defending his Tour de France title in July, Froome went on to win the Spanish Vuelta for the first time.

“My asthma got worse at the Vuelta so I followed the team doctor’s advice to increase my Salbutamol dosage,” Froome said. “As always, I took the greatest care to ensure that I did not use more than the permissible dose. I take my leadership position in my sport very seriously. The UCI is absolutely right to examine test results and, together with the team, I will provide whatever information it requires.”

The UCI said in a statement that Froome’s “B” sample confirmed the result, but stressed that “the presence of a specified substance such as salbutamol in a sample does not result in the imposition of such mandatory provisional suspension against the rider.”

Sky stressed the abnormal result does not mean Froome has breached anti-doping rules and Brailsford insisted he has the “utmost confidence that Chris followed the medical guidance in managing his asthma symptoms, staying within the permissible dose for Salbutamol.”

Froome said last month that he wants to ride in next year’s Giro d’Italia in an attempt to win his third Grand Tour in a row. A victory at the Italian race would make him the seventh rider to win all three Grand Tours, and only the third to hold the three titles at the same time.

Rodgers was hurt during a loss to Minnesota on Oct. 15 and had surgery four days later. He returned to practice on Dec. 2 and is eligible to rejoin the 53-man roster on Friday, which means the two-time MVP could suit up for Green Bay’s game at Carolina on Sunday.

“It’s been a long road … but I’m happy to say I’ve been medically cleared to return,” Rodgers wrote on Tuesday night. “Thanks for all the love, support, prayers and well wishes over the past 8 weeks and a big thank you to Dr. (Pat) McKenzie and our incredible training staff.”

The Packers (7-6) likely need to win their final three games to make the playoffs.

Rodgers had his collarbone scanned on Monday morning. That afternoon, with the team in the middle of game-planning for Carolina, coach Mike McCarthy wasn’t sure whether Rodgers or backup Brett Hundley would be his quarterback.

“I’d like to know as soon as possible,” McCarthy said. “Frankly, it’s best for Aaron to know as soon as possible. He’s the one that has to get ready and, obviously, in his mind he’s ready to go if you watch him practice and the conversations with him. But this is a medical decision and Dr. McKenzie is in touch with a number of different medical experts and they’re evaluating the information.”

Those meetings ran deep into Tuesday before a conclusion was reached.

The Packers were 4-2 in Rodgers’ six starts, including the Minnesota game, where he was hurt on the second possession on a hit by Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr. In the three prior games, he threw 10 touchdown passes with only one interception in consecutive victories over Cincinnati, Chicago and Dallas.

After playing the Panthers, who at 9-4 are in position for the top NFC wild card, the Packers have a rematch against NFC North-leading Minnesota before finishing the season at Detroit. Green Bay’s final three opponents have a combined record of 26-13.

The Packers went 3-4 in Hundley’s seven starts, including back-to-back overtime wins over Tampa Bay and Cleveland that kept their playoff hopes alive and made Rodgers’ return a tantalizing possibility.

“We’ve got a chance,” left tackle David Bakhtiari said after Sunday’s victory at Cleveland. “We know what the magic number is. We still have everything in front of us. It’s go time.”

]]>http://nationalpost.com/sports/packers-rodgers-says-hes-been-medically-cleared-to-return/feed0120117-1f640d2eaf9a4b269f1971da951918f1-1f640d2eaf9a4b269f1971da951918f1-0.CPT636477318262071161associatedpressnpCompetition will be fierce at Canada’s world juniors selection camphttp://nationalpost.com/sports/hockey/competition-will-be-fierce-at-canadas-world-juniors-selection-camp
http://nationalpost.com/sports/hockey/competition-will-be-fierce-at-canadas-world-juniors-selection-camp#commentsWed, 13 Dec 2017 02:22:52 +0000http://nationalpost.com/?p=77023434]]>Dominique Ducharme would not say exactly how many jobs are up for grabs at this week’s selection camp, but with 33 players invited — and only 22 roster spots available — the Team Canada head coach is expecting to see a healthy competition.

“It’s going to be interesting to see the battles, because we feel strongly that 33 guys have a chance at making that team,” said Ducharme. “It’s their job to make us make difficult decisions.”

You can pretty much etch in stone that the seven returning players (forwards Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Taylor Raddysh, defencemen Jake Bean, Kale Clague and Dante Fabbro, and goalie Carter Hart) will earn spots on the team, as well as Victor Mete, who is on loan from the Montreal Canadiens.

Cale Makar, who was the No. 4 overall pick of the Colorado Avalanche in this year’s draft, is also considered a lock, along with forwards Sam Steel, Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas, and goalie Michael DiPietro. After that, it’s pretty much anyone’s guess who ends up representing Canada.

“I won’t go and say we have 13 spots open,” said Ducharme, who plans on whittling down the roster after Canada plays a pair of games against U SPORTS — which is pretty much a Canadian university all-star team — on Wednesday and Thursday, before Friday’s game against Denmark.

“We don’t have a clear plan saying after the second game we will be cutting that many guys. I would think after the second game there is going to be some cuts, but the players will be dictating how many and who’s going to be cut.”

What is Canada looking for? Well, the usual things. Speed and skill are obviously coveted assets, but Ducharme also set up various drills during Day 1 of practice where players had to backcheck and work hard to take away time and space from the opposition.

“We want to make things happen,” said Ducharme. “And I think we have the speed and we have the skills and we have the checking ability to retrieve pucks quick and make things happen on the offensive side. We want to be hard to play against. Our speed is one thing for sure that can be hard to handle for the other teams.”

BUMPS AND BRUISES

Nashville Predators prospect Dante Fabbro is at the selection camp, but did not participate in Tuesday’s practices because of a minor injury he is working through. He is expected to be on the ice on Wednesday, but Ducharme said the returning defenceman likely won’t get into a game until Thursday.

Dube, who wore a yellow non-contact jersey, is also battling through a shoulder injury that he suffered a couple of weeks ago. Despite the fact that he was off limits, the returning forward still wasn’t completely safe.

“Everyone was like almost too nervous to hit me and then something happens where I trip on a stick and go into the boards,” said Dube, who left the ice briefly but returned in one piece. “That’s the way it goes. Luckily, nothing came of it.”

SHORT STUFF

A characteristic of Canadian hockey is an ability to finish checks and be aggressive. But don’t expect this year’s edition of the team to crush opponents through the glass and out of the building.

While 6-foot-7 defenceman Logan Stanley is the tallest player at selection camp, this could be one of the smaller teams assembled, with seven players who are shorter than 6-feet and two others who are lighter than 180 pounds.

“I just look at the things that I can control,” said Makar, who is 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds. “I’m not looking at playing out of my element. Whether it’s my speed or jumping into the play and moving the puck, that’s my game.”

GLASS TIGER

As the Vegas Golden Knights’ first-ever draft pick, Cody Glass has been paying close attention to the expansion team’s impressive start.

His reaction? Surprise.

“Everybody’s been surprised by it and it’s surprised even myself,” said Glass, a Winnipeg native. “They were off to a hot start there and their home records’ incredible too. They have a lot of skill on their team.

“One thing I love about the (Golden Knights’) coaching staff is they let you play hockey and have fun. It’s amazing what they’re doing up there. No one really expected it and that’s the awesome thing about it.”

HART AND THE OTHERS

Though Philadelphia Flyers prospect Hart has the inside track as the No. 1 goalie, the plan is for all the goalies at camp — DiPietro (Canucks), Colton Point (Dallas) and undrafted Samuel Harvey are the others — to split time in net during the team’s pair of games against U SPORTS.

No question, the larger-than-life expectations heaped on the teenagers Team Canada will pick this week to represent the country at the world junior hockey championship are immense. It’s gold or bust, regardless of the year or the team. But for Mete, who played 27 games in the most pressure-filled market in the NHL, it’s nothing compared to “the chaos” that he experienced for the past three months.

“It’s not like Montreal or any other NHL team where you have all the media (all year long),” said the 19-year-old defenceman, who is on loan for this tournament from the Canadiens. “This is only a two-week tournament.”

Consider Mete’s first two weeks of the season: the Canadiens lost six straight games and fielded questions regarding goalie Carey Price’s sudden inability to stop the puck. During another two-week window, the Canadiens went 1-4-2 and became the first team this year to lose in regulation time to the last-place Coyotes.

So yeah, the Woodbridge, Ont., native is probably more battled tested than any other player at selection camp, including the seven returning players who lost in a dramatic overtime shootout to the U.S. in last year’s tournament.

“Obviously, it’s a lot,” Mete said Tuesday of the pressures in Montreal. “But some of the guys know how to handle it. When we were losing, there was a lot of chaos, but I thought that we did a good job of overcoming that and we’re now back to almost .500.”

It’s that NHL experience, combined with an increased confidence at moving the puck, which makes Mete a far more valuable player than he was a year ago when he was one of the team’s cuts.

“Well, we see it with a lot of guys,” head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “One year can make a difference. Just remember (last year’s tournament MVP Thomas) Chabot in Finland and Chabot last year. At that time and at that age, 365 days is a lot. Maturity and strength … they’re all different players. He’s a little bit quicker, more experienced, stronger.”

Mete, who had no goals and four assists for the Canadiens this season, said he wasn’t surprised that he was loaned to Team Canada. Though he had spent time as Shea Weber’s defence partner — “He kind of took me under his wing and guided me everywhere,” Mete said — he hadn’t been in Montreal’s lineup for the past two games and his ice time had dipped below the 10-minute mark in three of the previous nine games.

Though he hasn’t been told whether the team plans on calling him back up when the tournament ends or re-assigning him to his junior team in London, he is looking towards the opportunity with a positive mindset.

“Playing here might be good for my development,” he said. “I’m going to trust them and try to win a gold here … because obviously (winning gold is) probably the biggest thing I’ve wanted since I was a little kid.”

A smallish defender — he is listed as 5-foot-10 and 178 pounds, which might be a tad generous — Mete was able to handle bigger and stronger competition with his ability to skate the puck out of trouble. “He skates really well,” said Jake Bean, one of three returning defencemen. “He makes a lot of good first passes and with his mobility, guys can’t get around him.”

With Mete joining the three returning players — Bean, Kale Clague and Dante Fabbro — as well as Cale Makar, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft, it’s obvious that Canada’s strengths are on the back end, especially with Carter Hart returning as the starting goalie.

“I think we’re pretty deep everywhere, but for sure we’re happy with the guys we have on the back end,” said Ducharme, who is behind the bench for the third straight year, his second as head coach. “Again, it’s experience. Going through a tournament, as a coach it’s the same thing … you know the beat, the way the tournament is played, how thin the line is between losing, how much attention to detail is important.”

For Mete, it’s even more than that. He’s played against the best in the world. Now’s he’s playing against the best in his age group. Having faced the likes of Jonathan Toews and Joe Thornton and other star players, it’s something he knows he should be able to handle.

“I feel like I’ve been doing a pretty good job there, so hopefully I get the opportunity to go back after this,” Mete said. “Everyone there has welcomed me, so I feel like I belong there and hopefully I can get the opportunity to go back there.”

Toast points

• Joey Votto has won the Lou Marsh Trophy. A panel of journalists deemed the Reds first baseman to be Canada’s standout athlete of 2017 earlier today, rewarding the Toronto-raised slugger for a season in which he finished second in the National League MVP voting. Votto batted .320 with a .454 OBP and 36 home runs in 162 games this season.

• Canada’s world junior selection camp got underway today in St. Catharines, Ont., just across the U.S. border from Buffalo, the host of the Dec. 26-Jan. 5 tournament. Head coach Dominique Ducharme will put 33 players — 18 forwards, 11 defencemen and four goalies — through four days of training before slimming the ranks to a final roster of 22. Seven of those players were part of the Canadian team that finished second at the world juniors in Toronto and Montreal last year.

• Major-league baseball umpire Dale Scott announced his retirement late yesterday. The 58-year-old had become the most obvious example of the concussion effects that come from getting hit with foul balls behind the plate. The last blow he took was on April 14 at the Rogers Centre on a foul ball by Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo. Scott left that game and didn’t return for the rest of the season. Doctors told him the more he subjected himself to blows to the head, the more risk he ran for trouble down the road.

Scott was a crew chief for 16 of his 32 seasons, worked 3,897 regular-season games and received three World Series assignments. He was also the home plate umpire for Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series between the Blue Jays and Texas Rangers, known for the Russell Martin throw that ricocheted off the bat of Shin Soo Choo and the legendary Jose Bautista bat flip.

Dale Scott, in an August 2013 file photo.

• The IOC has retroactively disqualified Russia’s women’s hockey team from the 2014 Sochi Olympics for doping offences involving six players. The decision strikes Russia’s sixth-place finish in that tournament from the record books. The six implicated players have been barred from the games for life, raising the number of Russian Olympians banned for doping at Sochi to 31.

The disqualification was announced hours after the Russian Olympic Committee confirmed it would allow its athletes to participate as neutrals at the Pyeongchang Games, forgoing any possibility of a boycott. ROC president Alexander Zhukov said he expects “potentially more than 200 athletes” to compete, though it remains to be seen if the IOC will let women’s hockey players contribute to that tally.

• Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey preparations continue this week when Hockey Canada ices a team at the Channel One Cup in Moscow. Canada’s first game is tomorrow morning against South Korea.

Canada’s Olympic team, which will be comprised mostly of pros playing in European leagues, is using these European tournaments to make its roster decisions. Ben Scrivens, who is playing for Ufa in the KHL, will again be the No. 1 goalie. Canada’s roster for the event has 19 players from KHL teams, including Wojtek Wolski, Matt Frattin, Linden Vey, P.A. Parenteau, Max Talbot, Teddy Purcell, Chris Lee and Simon Despres. Canada has only won the event once, back in 1987 when it was called the Izvestia Trophy.

• Legendary kick and punt returner Devin Hester announced his retirement from pro football today. The four-time Pro Bowler holds the NFL record for punt return touchdowns (14) and total return TDs (20), six of which came in his rookie season with the Bears in 2006. Hester, 35, led the league in kickoff return yardage as a Bear in 2013 and with the Falcons in 2014, but hadn’t played since he appeared in 12 games for the Ravens last season.

• Instrumental national anthems are the best, and the New York Rangers gave fans at Madison Square Garden a treat on Monday night from 10-year-old Zoe Nguyen.

Even the hard hockey men preparing to smash into each other were charmed by her awkward conclusion.

Nutritional analysis

With the election of Jack Morris to the Baseball Hall of Fame by one of the committees that takes a second look at players once they are no longer eligible to be considered by the baseball writers’ annual vote, Blue Jays fans are rightly squawking about the candidacy of Dave Stieb. Stieb has become one of the players whose career achievements are cast in a more glowing light now that we have the tools to more objectively compare players beyond their basic statistics like wins, which has been debunked as a measure of a pitcher’s value.

Morris’s 254 wins is one of the stats held up by his proponents. Stieb, who pitched two fewer seasons, only had 176. Morris pitched more than 900 more innings than Stieb and had 800 more strikeouts. Morris was the ace of the 1984 World Series-winning Tigers, and had a signature performance, his 10-inning shutout in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series for Minnesota.

Dave Stieb pitches for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998.

Since 2011, the website Hall of Stats has published its list of players who ought to be in the Hall of Fame based on a formula that takes into account Baseball-Reference’s Wins Above Replacement calculation and Wins Above Average. In that measure, Morris receives a career score of 77, where 100 is the cutoff for inclusion in the pantheon on elites. Morris is ranked 199th out of the 222 players currently in the Hall of Fame. Stieb’s score is 115.

WAR as a stat has been getting a hard look by the analytics community over the past couple of months based on some criticisms by Bill James. And Baseball-Reference’s flavour of WAR certainly values Stieb (57.0) more than Morris (43.8). Oddly, Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus like Morris much more than Stieb. Fangraphs gives Morris the edge 55.8 to 43.8 and Baseball Prospectus’s WARP stat credits Morris with 64.3 against Stieb’s 50.0.

The Modern Era committee, which elected Morris and Alan Trammell on Sunday, meets again in 2019. With two players off the list, will Stieb get one of those spots for consideration?

Photo of the day

The Patriots were thisclose to clinching their ninth straight AFC East title last night. Instead, an early deficit and an insufficient fourth-quarter comeback attempt doomed them to a 27-20 loss to the Dolphins, New England’s first defeat since Oct. 1.

The Pats are still three games clear of the rest of their division at 10-3, setting up a scrumptious showdown with the Steelers (11-2) in Pittsburgh next Sunday. Miami (6-7), meanwhile, stayed within a game of the AFC’s second wild-card spot, although four teams are ahead of them in that race.

New England Patriots receiver Danny Amendola comes up short of the end zone against the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 11.

At nationalpost.com

• Canada’s world junior hockey team won’t feature a Crosby- or McDavid-like star this year. Indeed, writes Michael Traikos, the average fan probably won’t recognize most of the players Ducharme picks for his final roster — a scenario that bodes well for Michael McLeod, the speedy, energetic New Jersey Devils prospect who could become a household name in a matter of weeks.

• Olympic athletes will generally try anything within the rules of their discipline that helps them win. (And, in the case of a certain Cold War power, anything outside the rules, too.) Still, it was strange when Norwegian speed skaters turned up to the first World Cup event of the season a few weeks ago in blue uniforms, rather than their country’s trademark red. This wasn’t a fashion statement, reports The New York Times’ Andrew Keh. Norway is convinced that blue is the faster colour.

]]>http://nationalpost.com/sports/hot-buttered-post-if-jack-morris-is-a-hall-of-famer-what-about-dave-stieb/feed0Dave StiebnationalpoststaffNFL Network suspends Marshall Faulk, two other ex-players over claims of sexual harassmenthttp://nationalpost.com/sports/football/nfl/nfl-network-suspends-marshall-faulk-two-other-ex-players-over-claims-of-sexual-harassment
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 15:49:38 +0000https://nationalpostcom.wordpress.com?p=77021643&preview=true&preview_id=77021643]]>The NFL Network suspended a trio of analysts, including Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, after allegations of sexual harassment by a former co-worker.

The former football players, including Heath Evans and Ike Taylor, allegedly groped and made sexually explicit comments to female colleague Jami Cantor, according to a lawsuit filed against NFL Enterprises by Cantor, a former wardrobe stylist at the NFL Network.

The allegations against the retired players and former NFL Network executive producer Eric Weinberger, who’s now president of sports commentator Bill Simmons’s media group, are part of a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. An amended complaint filed Monday detailed specific acts of harassment by several individuals who aren’t named as defendants.

Cantor said Weinberger sent “several nude pictures of himself and sexually explicit texts” and told her she was “put on earth to pleasure me.” He also pressed his crotch against Cantor’s shoulder and asked her to touch it, according to the complaint.

She said she was also sexually harassed by on-air talent. Faulk would ask Cantor “deeply personal and invasive questions” about her sex life and fondled her breasts and groped her behind, according to the complaint.

Inappropriate Photos

Taylor sent Cantor “sexually inappropriate” pictures and a video of him masturbating in the shower, according to the filing. Donovan McNabb, a former analyst, also texted her explicit comments, according to the complaint. McNabb now works for ESPN, which said in a statement that neither the former quarterback nor another employee cited in the complaint, Eric Davis, would appear on its networks during an NFL investigation into the allegations.

Alex Riethmiller, a spokesman for the NFL Network, said Faulk, Taylor and Evans were suspended pending the investigation.

Weinberger hung up the phone when reached for comment. He has been suspended from Simmons’s media properties, including The Ringer website, according to a statement. Simmons didn’t return emails seeking comment on the allegations.

From left to right: Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor and Heath Evans.

Joel Segal, who represents Taylor, didn’t immediately return a voicemail seeking comment. Jordan Bazant, who represents Faulk and Evans, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations. Representatives for McNabb didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Cantor first filed her case in October, claiming wrongful termination. Laura Horton, a lawyer for Cantor, said by phone “it’s outrageous conduct and I fully intend to hold the NFL Network responsible.”

While men across politics, media, entertainment and the technology industry have been fired over allegations of sexual harassment, there have been few recent high-profile cases in the sports world.

Live Programming

Simmons has praised Weinberger in the past.

“He’s a talented guy with an impeccable reputation, someone who is uniquely equipped to help me build an innovative multimedia company from scratch,” Simmons said in a 2015 statement announcing Weinberger’s hiring.

“I know from experience that you’re only as good as the people around you, and Eric is one of the very best,” he said at the time. At the NFL Network, Weinberger helped create and oversee the network’s live programming, according to the statement.

Cantor said she complained about the sexual advances from former NFL players to Marc Watts, the league’s talent coordinator, but he did nothing and said, “It’s part of the job when you look the way you do,” according to the complaint. Watts didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Cantor said she also complained about other working conditions at the network, including a failure to reimburse her for expenses and a lack of compensation for the hours she worked. She was terminated by her supervisor at the NFL in October 2016, when she was 51, and replaced by a 30-year-old, according to the complaint.